Lebanon News and World News Live from Beirut

The Syrian military officer walked around for five months carrying a memory stick loaded with family photos in his uniform pocket, waiting for the chance to defect. When that moment arrived in late December, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Hassoun went to his Aleppo home for lunch,

15 high ranking Syrian army officers defected to Turkey on Friday, the Turkish Anadolu news agency reported. They were allowed to enter Turkey through the Boukelmaz crossing under tight security measures, the Anadolu Agency said. The Syrian army officers were accompanied by family members and 17 wounded Syrians. The defectors asked for political

A former Syrian air force general who was also the country’s first astronaut said Tuesday that only about one-third of Syria’s fighter pilots are carrying out the daily bombing raids of rebel strongholds because President Bashar Assad’s regime cannot count on the loyalty of the rest.

MAFRAQ, Jordan – In an isolated stretch of Jordanian desert, a heavily guarded, secret compound houses 1,200 senior police and army officers who defected from nearby Syria. The men live in trailers with fans but no air conditioning

Two high-ranking Syrian army officials defected from the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Al-Arabiya television reported on Friday. The report identified the defectors as : General Ahmad Tlass , head of military procurement at the interior ministry and Mohammad al-Haj Ali, military academy senior official

THREE more Syrian generals have crossed into Turkey, bringing to 24 the number of generals who have fled the unrest in Syria. “Ten officers including one general fled to Turkey overnight (Thursday),” said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. And “Two brigadier generals crossed Friday,” he added.

The rebel Free Syrian Army said it has begun the “battle for the liberation of Damascus,” as clashes with government forces raged in the capital for a third day. The battles come as more than 1,000 Syrians, including a defecting brigadier-general, fled to Turkey overnight.

To escape the government he served until it gave him an order he could not obey, Capt. Akhmed Trad, a pilot in Syria’s air force, needed a plan: how to spirit himself over a border quickly, and leave no family behind.

According to a report by AL Monitor Over 100,000 Defected from Syrian army and joined the Free Syrian Army . This was confirmed by a defected Syrian officer who was the former director of the Syrian Special Forces Operations Bureau under the command of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence.